Daddy's Little Girl
by Saya Moonshadow
Summary: It was a promise he never meant to keep, but ended up keeping anyway. Companion to Sylla Shadowfrost’s fic Come Back Home. Malvado and Siahta, father and daughter.


**This is for my friend Sylla Shadowfrost's story **_**Twisted Timing**_**. Yes, another one XD In her short story **_**Come Back Home**_**, she described the relationship between her character Siahta and my character Malvado in such a way that made me want to write something about it. So here it is.**

**Disclaimer: The only ones in this story that I own are Malvado, Mano, Shinoda, and Jingo. Siahta belongs to **_**Sylla Shadowfrost**_**. Everyone else is property of LEGO Enterprises. "Daddy's Little Girl" belongs to Frankie J.**

**Summary: It was a promise he never meant to keep, but ended up keeping anyway. Companion to **_**Sylla Shadowfrost's**_** fic**_** Come Back Home**_**. Malvado and Siahta, father and daughter.**

**Daddy's Little Girl  
By: Saya Moonshadow  
For: Sylla Shadowfrost**

_He drops his suitcase by the door   
She knows her daddy won't be back anymore   
She drags her feet across the floor   
Trying to hold back time to keep him holding on   
And she says..._

There were some times when people were forced to do things they desperately didn't want to do. Malvado Hordika had done several things he desperately didn't want to do, but none of them had hurt as bad as what he had to do now.

He looked at the female Toa lying on the floor of their small hut, and picked her up. She was small, even for a nine-year-old, and rather light. But still his muscles screamed in protest, and he fought the stabbing pain that ran across his back. He gritted his teeth and straightened up as well he could, still holding her close. Pain rose in his throat, and he was hard put to shove it back down, instead coughing hard.

This woke her up. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, then recognized him and smiled at him. It didn't matter that the blindfold keeping his hypnotizing eyes was off; she didn't care about that. As long as she didn't look directly into them, she would be OK. "Are you OK, Daddy?" she asked, patting his cheek.

Malvado coughed again, but managed a smile. "I'm fine, just a little sick."

"You've been sick for a while," Siahta said. "When will you get better?"

It was the question he feared more than anything, because he knew the answer wasn't one either of them wanted. Sometimes he just ignored it and pretended to have not heard, but it was times like these that he had to lie and answer.

"Soon," he smiled again. "I'll get better soon."

"That's what you said last year," Siahta said, staring at him reproachfully. "And you're still sick now. How come it doesn't go away?"

Malvado shrugged and shifted her on his hip. "I dunno. Listen, Siahta..."

She looked at him again, indigo eyes wide and innocent.

"I'm going to take you to a friend tomorrow, OK? I'll be gone for a while, but you'll be alright. He'll take care of you."

"How long will you be gone?" She looked scared now. It tore at his heart strings, but he had to do it. If she saw him wasting away anymore than he already was, it would scar her for life. Better to leave her with someone who would take care of her than to have her stay with him and then die, leaving her all alone.

Not only that, but there were several...loose ends that he had to tie up. And she would only get in the way, or worse, get killed. He didn't want that.

"I'm not sure. But I'll come back, I promise."

Perhaps that last promise wasn't a lie.

"_Daddy, Daddy, don't leave   
I'll do anything to keep you   
Right here with me   
Can't you see how much I need you?   
Daddy, Daddy, don't leave   
Mommy's saying things she don't mean   
She don't know what she's talking about   
Somebody hear me out!"_

X x X

Vakama was a nice Matoran, if a little shy. But he was also the only one Malvado would trust to take care of Siahta for him. He would make sure she was cared for, and safe, and everything else that he himself could no longer do. It was with a sad smile that he grasped the Matoran's hand and shook it, quietly explaining what was going on, and asking the favor of him. Vakama agreed of course, but also offered the Hordika a home as well.

His answer was no. He had things he needed to do. And if Siahta were to see him wasting away...he wouldn't put her through that.

He hated the look of pity in Vakama's eyes. It made him feel even sicker than he already did.

He was just about to leave when Siahta burst in, tears streaming from her eyes, to grab onto his arm. "Don't go!" she cried. "I don't want you to go! I don't like it here, take me with you!"

Gently, Malvado pried her off of him, gripping her by the shoulders and making her look him in the eye. Or, more accurately, blindfold.

"Siahta," he said gently, "you had no problem with this before."

She sniffled, rubbing at her eyes. "But..."

"There's something I have to do," he explained. "Vakama will take care of you. You'll be safe. I promise."

"But you'll be back, right?" she asked, eyes wide. "You promised! You promised you'd come back!"

He had to fight the sob that was threatening to burst out of him, but instead released her and turned away, walking to the door. "...of course."

"_Father, listen   
Tell him that he's got a home and he don't have to go   
Father, save him   
I would do anything in return   
I'll clean my room   
Try hard in school   
I'll be good  
I promise you   
Father, Father   
I pray to you..."_

X x X

In the old days, before he came across Siahta, before the events that tore them apart, there were four of them. Four..."friends".

No. Not friends. Partners-in-crime, perhaps. But one of them was now dead, and the other two were crazed, wild monsters, even more so than he was, and he was the only one with Rahi blood.

Mano's eyes were still the same icy blue that they had always been, but now they were red-rimmed and crazy, staring at him with an almost frightening intensity. The Vortixx no longer carried the oversized marionette controller he used to on his back, but Shinoda still carried the usual assortment of swords and blades on his person. The Fire Toa sneered at Malvado as he stepped up to them and then grinned.

"Look what'sh jusht dropped in!" he slurred, courtesy of a broken jaw that had never healed properly. Malvado had been the one to break it, the last time they had met. Mano stared at him with those crazy eyes and smiled almost sweetly. But he didn't speak. A throat wound, courtesy of his younger sister, the famed warrior Roodaka, had left him unable to speak since his much younger days.

"Whaddaya want?" Shinoda asked, pointing a long blade at the Hordika. "I'm'unna kill ya for breakin' my jaw! Jush' you watch."

Malvado narrowed his eyes. "I didn't come here to listen to you babble, Shinoda."

"Oh really?" The Fire Toa leaned forward, red eyes blazing at him. "Den what DIDja c'mere fer, eh?"

Out of the corner of his un-blindfolded eyes, the Hordika could see Mano getting up, no longer smiling. "I came here to finish what I started all those years ago," he snapped. "Voël was right to try to kill you, Shinoda. You really ARE a disgrace to the name of 'Toa'. I'm shocked and appalled that Mano still goes with you."

Shinoda cast a glance over his shoulder at the Vortixx. "Eh, he ain't got a choishe anymore, y'know. Wivout me, he'sh nothin'."

Malvado shook his head sadly. "I wish it didn't have to come to this. But you give me no choice."

_Now she hasn't slept in weeks   
She don't want to close her eyes because she's scared that he'll leave   
They tried just about everything   
It's getting harder now   
For him to breathe   
And she says..._

X x X

Siahta never knew why Malvado had abandoned her, but over time, the pain gradually turned into a dull ache, and she learned to live with it.

She hated how he would stay late at the forge to work though. It gave her too much time to think. Too much time to remember. When he was home, she could at least occupy herself with making him comfortable after a long day's work.

And then he became a Toa, just like her. Him and five others.

She was always drawn to Nuju more so than anything else. There was just something about him that she couldn't help but watch.

After all the hardship - Lhikan's betrayal, Nidhiki's death at his hands, Sorayanna's betrayal, Nuju's torture, everything else - things somehow managed to seem normal. Perhaps she was just so used to all the turmoil that she no longer knew what "normal" felt like.

When Nuju told her he loved her, she felt elated. Happier than she'd ever been in her life. The hardship was gone, the Dark Hunters defeated, everything was alright. But not totally alright. Vakama was dead now too, and with him, a good portion of Metru Nui's Matoran. All dead from fighting to protect their home.

In time, she had a gift for Nuju. A baby, with the same white coloring and blue eyes that he himself possessed. His name was to be Jingo, Jing for short. Even as a baby, all he ever really did was sleep, be lazy, and do complicated mathematical problems in his spare time. No one could ever explain it, but it seemed he had inherited his father's genius. Thankfully, though, he had inherited a good nature from his mother as well, and smiled easily.

Where Jing was lazy and smarter than he had a right to be at his age, their second child, Sayla, was upbeat and normal for a child.

Siahta had almost forgotten Malvado's promise to her until one day, as she returned from scouting out Ta-Metru, Sayla ran up to her, tears streaming from her eyes.

"I thought you weren't comin' home!" she cried, burying her face in Siahta's leg, which she had wrapped her tiny self around. "Jing said you weren't gonna come back!"

Siahta frowned, remembering a very familiar scene, of a small red Toa child hanging onto the arm of a deep gray Hordika, begging him not to leave her. She directed her gaze to the white Toa child lounging some ten feet away in a snow drift. "Jingo, come here!"

Her son lifted himself out of the snow with a grunt and shuffled over. For a thirteen-year-old, he sure was getting tall, she mused, before frowning at him again. "I didn't say you weren't EVER coming back, I said you weren't coming back till next week," he mumbled, casting a light glare at his four-year-old sister. "It's her fault for misinterpreting what I said."

Siahta sighed and drew him over to her in a hug. "You shouldn't make light of things like that, Jing. A long time ago, someone promised me he would come back. But he never did, and I never really got over it. I spent the better part of my childhood waiting for him. That's why I always come home - because I promised you kids I would." She smiled at Sayla, who gave her a watery smile in return. "Alright you two, where's your father?"

"_Daddy, Daddy, don't leave   
I'll do anything to keep you   
Right here with me   
Can't you see how much I need you?   
Daddy, Daddy, don't leave   
The doctors are saying things they don't mean   
They don't know what they talking about   
Somebody hear me out!"_

X x X

It hurt. It hurt a lot. How the heck had he managed to survive for so long? Twelve years it had taken him to find them, and now they were dead. Soon, he would be too.

He wasn't even sure if he was going the right way. He had simply lashed the tiller of the boat to go this direction, and left the rest to luck. It was pure agony to move, not only from the wounds he had taken, but also from the disease that was slowly but surely taking its toll on him now more than ever.

Sometimes his old wounds reopened, and he would scream out his agony to the empty sea and sky as salt water burned them, but no one was ever around to hear him. He was fairly sure by now he was going to die out here.

But then he wouldn't have kept his promise. The promise he hadn't meant to keep, but had, for some reason, tried to keep anyway. He didn't know why he hadn't simply rolled over and died after tearing Shinoda's throat out. The Fire Toa and the Vortixx had given him the worst fight he'd ever been in, left him nearly dead. He didn't remember much of it - just a few bits and pieces. They were both dead now, still where he had left them.

He couldn't move his arms anymore, they were just too tired. He slumped down in the boat, closing his eyes.

The boat bumped into something hard, and then he was being tossed out as a wave broke over him. Somehow, he managed to crawl onto the sand of what was undoubtedly the shore of some island and flop down upon it, coughing up copious amounts of sea water and bile.

He had lain there for perhaps an hour when something small and warm touched his face, and he opened his eyes.

It was her. The one he had promised to come back to so long ago. But it had been years since then...how come she was still a child?

"S...Siahta..." he gasped before passing out in a dead faint, overcome by fatigue and strain.

Sayla blinked, confused. Why had the funny gray thing said her mother's name? She wasn't her mother, obviously! But she could tell that whatever it was was badly in need of help. Blood oozed from wounds all along its body, and it was painfully thin. She could count all of its ribs.

She stumbled over the ground, running to the white shape sleeping half buried in the sand and jumping on him, waking him up with an, "Oof!"

Jing sat up angrily, shoving his mask back on properly and glaring. "That HURT, Sayla! Wait'll I tell Father--"

She tugged on his arm urgently. "There's a big gray thing in the water! It said Mother's name!"

Jing stopped his tirade and shoved her off of him, getting up and brushing sand from himself. He could see it, a dark shape on the beach, just laying there, and walked towards it. He whistled when he saw it fully, and then turned to his younger sister. "Go get Father and some medics. If this guy doesn't get help soon, he's gonna die."

As she ran off, he crouched by it and felt for a pulse. Weak, but still there. Good. This Hordika was obviously very sick, but with any luck, he would live.

"_Father, listen   
Tell him that he's got a home and he don't have to go   
Father, save him   
I would do anything in return   
I'll clean my room   
Try hard in school   
I'll be good   
I promise you   
Father, Father   
I pray to you..."_

X x X

His eyes felt heavy, but he could open them. As soon as he did, however, he regretted it. The light was strong, and it hurt, and he shut them quickly. But there was a voice next to him that made him turn his head and open them again, just a little.

"Lookie, Jing! He's alive!"

"Of course he is." An older voice, male. "The medics know what they're doing. Mind you, he's still real sick. Some kinda wasting disease, they said."

"He said Mother's name. Does he know her?"

"Dunno."

Malvado licked dry lips and managed to whisper, "Siahta...?" Heaven knew that younger voice sounded so much like her.

The small child who had stood over him before now smiled at him. "That's Mother's name!" she said brightly. "My name's Sayla, and his name's Jing--" she pointed to her older brother, "--so you should call us by our real names, yeah?"

He coughed slightly. "Mother...?" Siahta, his little girl, was a mother now? Had it really been so long? Just how old was she now? She was eight when he left her in Vakama's care, and it had been...too many years now...

He was distracted by the gasp from the doorway, and turned his head painfully. What greeted him there was obviously his daughter, but older, much older. He managed a smile, just looking at her.

A mother, huh? That made him so proud...whoever had married her was lucky indeed. If she were a mother, then that technically made him a grandfather... so those were his grandchildren there, the boy and the little girl that looked so much like her.

Siahta stared at him, very aware of the tears that were coursing down her cheeks. "Daddy..."

"I...told you I'd...come back..." he wheezed, then fell to coughing again, much harder this time. He tasted blood on his lips.

She went to him, kneeling by the bed and throwing herself onto his chest, sobbing. He gave a grunt of pain as she aggravated his wounds and put pressure on him when it was already hard to breathe, but still hugged her as best he could.

"You're back." Her voice was thick with crying. "I thought you'd never come back."

"I promised, didn't I?" he asked lightly. "I just...wanted to see you one more time..."

She looked up at him, fearfully, he noted. "I'm dying, Siahta..." he said. "That's why I left you there with Vakama...I didn't want you to see me waste away...look at me..." He indicated his thin limbs. "I can...barely walk...barely breathe...it hurts just to live now..."

"Don't leave me!"

She sounded just like an eight-year-old child again. He saw Jing and Sayla moving in out of the corner of his eye, and focused on them. Jing was tall, probably still young, but he had a strong look about him. White coloring, blue eyes. Great Mask of Telekinesis. Sayla he concentrated on a bit more. "You there..." he whispered, reaching out to her, "you look just like Siahta..."

"She's my mom," Sayla said, and Malvado chuckled. She allowed him to touch her cheek before the effort became too much and his hand dropped.

The door opened, and in stepped a tall white Toa, obviously their father from the resemblance he bore to Jing. Nuju stared at the gray Hordika his wife was crying over for a moment, and then looked at Siahta.

"He came back." she said thickly. "He came back, Nuju. He came back..."

Nuju was silent, instead going to her and taking her in his arms. He knew what was happening. He had been the one to do the analysis of the Hordika's body, after all. "It's...nice to meet you." he said.

"You'll be...the one who took her heart...then?" Malvado asked, and Nuju nodded. The Hordika smiled a bit. "I'm glad then...Siahta, listen to me."

She looked at him, tears still streaming. He reached out and brushed them away. "Don't cry over me," he said. "I don't deserve the gesture...if you knew what I'd done before you came to me...you wouldn't want...anything to do with me...but I don't want you to cry..."

"Why not?" she asked. "You just came back here for the first time in Mata Nui knows how long, and tell me you're dying! How can I not cry?"

"...I came back because I wanted to see you again." he whispered. It hurt to talk now. "I wasn't going to keep that promise...I don't know why I did. But I had to see you again...don't you understand?"

She nodded, wiping her eyes on her arm. "...y-yeah. I do."

He smiled. "Good. Now...before I go out completely, tell me about my grandchildren...I want to get to know them a little bit."

He couldn't help but smile when he heard how lazy Jing was. Even though they weren't related by blood, it seemed one small part of him had passed on to Siahta's children. Of course, his own laziness was now due to the fact that he could barely move without excruciating pain, but the fact remained...

Contentment stole over him, and he closed his eyes with a wide smile.

_Please don't let him go   
I'm begging you so    
Let him open his eyes   
There ain't no more time   
To tell him that I love him more   
Then anything in the world   
It's Daddy's little girl._

X x X

A week later, they were grouped around a carved stone with a Kanohi Kadin carved into it. A bunch of flowers were tied together at the stone's base.

Siahta stood, her arm around Nuju and one hand on Jing's shoulder as her daughter knelt, whispering something to the stone. She looked at her husband just as he looked at her, and managed a small smile.

Sayla finished whatever she was saying to the stone and stood up. She took her father's hand and looked at her mother.

Siahta said nothing, but instead turned and left. Perhaps their reunion wasn't what she had once dreamed it would be, with him taking her back home where they could live happily ever after like the father and daughter they were, but at least he had kept his promise.

Yes...he had kept his promise. It had taken him years, but he had come back to her, just as he had said he would.

_Father, listen   
Tell him that he's got a home and he don't have to go    
Father, save him   
I would do anything in return   
I'll clean my room   
Try hard in school   
I'll be good   
I promise you   
Father, Father   
She was Daddy's little girl._

X x X

**END.**

X x X

**AN: ...HAH. I wrote something after...twenty-two days. Wow, it's been a while. Freaking writer's block. Not to mention I'm kind of sick right now, which just makes me kind of listless and idea-less XD Haha.**

**Anyway, please review, and don't forget to check out **_**Sylla Shadowfrost's**_** two stories, **_**Twisted Timing**_** and **_**Come Back Home**_** for some good reading!**


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